Based on Peter Szondi’s studies, the Drama of modernity had its beginning in Renaissance. After the collapse of the medieval worldview, an artistic reality in which a human being could fix and mirror himself on the basis of interpersonal relationships was created. Man disclosed himself to his contemporary world: nothing outside the interpersonal relationships was accepted in the drama. Drama is absolute and unique for it is separate from everything outside itself and it is constructed by dialogue, which is dominant. The author cannot appear anywhere in drama – referred to what is spoken – but it belongs to him just as a whole and everything spoken cannot be out of context. Also, the absoluteness of this artistic reality regards to the spectator that has to be passive: “silent, with hands tied, lamed by the impact of this other world”(p.8)¹. The relationship between actor and role cannot be visible, since no things can exist besides those demonstrated in the drama – actor and character become one. The drama is always primary, which means that it represents only itself. It is not related to some historical event, or to something that is happening in the contemporary world, and these both characteristics always leads to the “present” as Drama’s internal time. The internal time, or present, is constructed through dialogue – as the dialogues pass, the action pass and the present is dressed by a new present. As Szondi affirms, “every moment must contain the seeds of future” (p.9), otherwise, the linearity and the principle of absolute presence in Drama would be subverted. From this point of view, the temporal fragmentation of the scenes would result in the break of unity of time. Another aspect of drama consists on its unity of place. The spatial context should not be large, since the larger the scene, the more difficult it is to the spectators to follow it. Then, with Drama’s characteristics mentioned above, this paper will analyze one of the novels that symbolized the beginning of the crisis of drama. The novel is Of Mice and Men, and some of its aspects that can be considered opposite to what was preached by Drama’s theory will be observed.

The Crisis in Of mice and Men

As said in introduction, the Drama consists in unity. Nothing outside the interpersonal relationships was accepted in it. As Szondi says, “real dramatic action does not present human existence in terms of some specific cause. If it did, the action would point beyond itself (…) The existence of the dramatis personae should not reach beyond the temporal borders of the Drama” (p.38), which means that the characters presented in the Drama are not created as a mirror of subjects in the exterior world. This kind of dramatic presentation is called by Szondi as “transformation of alienated conditionality into interpersonal actuality” and it means that a single dramatic personae represents thousands of people living in the same condition. However, in Of Mice and Men, of John Steinbeck, an undramatic element is seen - the characters do represent subjects inserted in a certain period of human history. In this case, the period remits to the Great Depression, which happened after World War I and had devastating effects in many countries. This crisis led many rural poor and hand workers to produce even more goods, but for the same amount of money and many rich farmers bought more lands and expensive agricultural equipments in order to support the new demand, and this made them broke. It is in this context that Steinbeck writes Of Mice and Men. One of the main characters, Lennie, is as mindless as a mice, and he may represent the life that the low society - in this particular case, hand workers - had in this period. Lennie can also be a stereotype of people that simply accept and obey what others tell them to do and this can be noticed in the 2nd act, 1st scene, when Curley starts beating Lennie and the last fights back...

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...Of mice and men
Section B
Question 21
Part(a)
How does Steinbeck use details in this passage to present the bunkhouse and its inhabitants?
In the novel “Of Mice And Men”, Steinbeck presents the bunkhouse as being very hostile and unfriendly through the use of adjectives,”the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted”. This portrays the simple nature of the bunkhouse and it's only purpose: housing the ranch hands. The adjective, “whitewashed” presents the clinical nature of hospital which the patients can not personalise. Therefore, indicates the lack of identity the habitants have.
The bunkhouse is portrayed as being an uncomfortable place through the use of nouns,”burlap ticking”. This implies that the bunkhouse was not a luxurious habitat for the migrant workers because the noun,”burlap” is associated with being coarse and rough. Perhaps Steinbeck did this to show the reader the simplicity of the lives of the migrant workers.
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...Of Mice and Men
"O.K. Someday—we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs and—" "An' live off the fatta the lan'," Lennie shouted. ”An' have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George." (119-123) “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is a novel about the American Dream. Steinbeck mixes emotions by telling a cold hard truth about the U.S. in the 1930s.
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...Question – Hopes and Dreams help people to survive, even if they can never be realised. Discuss this statement as it is explored by Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men.
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Bookreport on „Of Mice and Men“
The novel „Of Men and Mice“ was published in 1937 and is written by John Steinbeck. The first
edition of the book has 107 pages and can be devided into six different sections. The novel plays
during the Great Depression, in California. The Author himself grew up in a fertile agricultural
valley about twentey-five miles from the Pacific Coast. The maine Charachters are two migrant
workers, Lenni Small and George Milton. Two very different men, who travel from farm to farm,
trying to earn enough money to buy their own little house with some animals. In the following text
will be a short summerary of the books content and subsequetly the story and writing style of the
author will be analyzed.
The story opens with the description of a riverbed in California, a beautiful, wooded area at the
base of “golden foothill slopes.”Two men walk along the path. George, is small, wiry, and
sharp-featured, while his companion, Lennie, is large and awkward. They start having a
conversation and it becomes clear that the larger man has a mild mental disability, and that his
companion looks out for him. In the following paragraphs the reader learns about the two men's
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...Summary- Of Mice and Men
Lennie and George are two very different men that you usually wouldn't see walking around together. Lennie,”a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child”, while George is “small and quick and dark of face.” Despite their differences, the two get along very fine. The dream they both hold is to live and own an acre of land and “a shack they can call their own,” and not to mention the rabbits!
In the beginning of their journey, they come across some workmates at the Ranch they work at, located in Salinas Valley. A man named Curley is married to a “flirtatious” woman, known has “Curley's wife.” Lennie, unfortunately ends up being very attracted to her. Curley is jealous of Lennie and it leads to a fight. The fight ends up with Curley and his broken hand. George, Lennie's partner, gives Lennie advice that he must listen to in order to keep their jobs. He tells him that if Lennie ever got in trouble, he would go hide in the bush they camped out near. Unfortunately, Lennie isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Throughout the story, things go very well with the two men, but something changes all of that very soon. Curley's wife keeps bugging all of the men while they are working and each time, Lennie grows more fond of her, but he keeps in mind of George's words,”Don't you even take a look at that b***h. I don't care what she says and what she does. I seen 'em poison...

...Of Mice And Men
Within this essay, I am going to have a discussion about some very different characters in John Steinbeck’s,” Of Mice and Men”. Each character is very different but all appear to have loneliness in common. One is a very intelligent man, George, who travels with and looks after a powerfully strong yet gentle man named Lennie, who has the mental age of a child. Another character, Crooks, keeps himself to himself as he is a black man and believes that no white man should interact with him. Candy, an elderly man, which I shall discuss and show his despair of when he looses his dog. Curley’s wife seeks the attention of the men on the ranch, as her husband isn’t giving her any consideration. Loneliness affects several characters in the novel and at one point or another are dreaming of a changed life.
The first character I’m going to speak about is George. George looks after a mentally disabled man named Lennie. They both travel together but he constantly says he could do better without Lennie, he can be spiteful to him but this is due to frustration.
"Guys like us that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place.”
George can never stay at a job for long, as Lennie gets them into terrible trouble and they have to leave immediately. George feels like he’s missing out on a life that could be great...